- Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s taxpayer funded Met bodyguards told to provide security for Epstein party, emails reveal
Source: Independent [UK]
“Taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Police bodyguards assigned to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor were instructed to provide door security for a lavish celebrity dinner party at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home, emails suggest. Two royal protection officers appear to have been told to act as doormen at the paedophile financier’s seven-floor Manhattan mansion in 2010, after he had been convicted of a child sex offence. The officers, given the job of protecting the prince, were staying at the multimillion-pound townhouse on 71st Street during the royal’s trip to visit his friend, according to emails unearthed in the latest tranche of the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice.” (02/22/26)
- Secret Service: Armed man shot and killed after entering Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The US Secret Service announced on Sunday morning that an armed man was shot and killed after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence and private club in Palm Beach. Although the US president often spends weekends at the ocean resort, he was at the White House in Washington during this incident, as was first lady Melania Trump. The identity of the man who was shot has not been released. According to the Secret Service, he was ‘observed by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can.’ The suspect was in his early 20s and from North Carolina, according to investigators. He was reported missing a few days ago by his family.” (02/22/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/22/mar-a-lago-armed-man-shot-killed
- Hundreds of students suspended, schools under close watch over anti-ICE walkouts
Source: The Hill
“Hundreds of K-12 students across the country have received detention or suspension after participating in classroom walkouts to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts. Such anti-ICE or ‘ICE out’ walkouts have increasingly popped up after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month. But experts say leaving school grounds is not a form of protest protected under the First Amendment for students, and Republican leaders are warning of consequences for those who participate. … schools in Florida and Texas in particular are facing increased pressure from Republican officials to curtail anti-ICE walkouts.” [editor’s note: They hate it when the inmates escape the day prisons even briefly – TLK] (02/20/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5745489-ice-out-student-protests-texas-florida-oklahoma/
- Indian, Brazilian regimes sign minerals deal
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Brazil and India have signed an agreement to boost cooperation on critical minerals and rare earths, as the Indian government seeks new suppliers to curb its dependence on China. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday and discussed boosting trade and investment opportunities. … China dominates the mining and processing of the world’s rare-earth and critical minerals, and has increased its grip on exports in recent months as the United States attempts to break its hold on the growing industry. Still, for Brazil, which follows China as the world’s second-largest holder of critical minerals, its resources are used across a range of fields, including electric vehicles, solar panels, smartphones, jet engines, and guided missiles.” (02/21/26)
- CT: Former Police Chief Arrested Over Alleged $85,000 Theft From Department Funds
Source: US News & World Report
“The former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested Friday on larceny charges following allegations he stole $85,000 from two department accounts. Karl Jacobson, 56, who abruptly retired from the department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant. He was later released on a court-set bond of $150,000, a state prosecutor said in a news release. Jacobson faces two counts of larceny related to defrauding a public community. … The state prosecutor’s office said Friday the city of New Haven first reported the embezzlement allegations on Jan. 5, which prompted an investigation by the Connecticut State Police. The probe revealed $81,500 was unaccounted for or misappropriated from the New Haven Police Department Narcotic Enforcement Fund between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2026. Money from the fund is used to pay confidential informants who help in narcotics investigations.” (02/20/26)
- CA: Campaign for idiotic “billionaire tax” proposal warns of hospitals shutting down in first TV ad
Source: SFGate
“The labor union pushing forward the highly controversial billionaire’s wealth tax is launching its first TV ad during the Olympics this weekend, SFGATE has learned. The 30-second ad, paid for by the Service Employees International Union, a health care union, will play during the men’s gold hockey game Sunday, the union confirmed. The commercial warns that California’s health care industry is under threat of collapse under looming federal health care cuts, and warns that more hospitals could close and that there are likely to be ‘longer wait times and overcrowded emergency rooms’ as a result. ‘Massive federal cuts will shut hospitals and emergency rooms forever because billionaires refuse to pay their fair share,’ the commercial says.” [editor’s note: And when the billionaires leave (and defeat the ex post facto part of the proposal in court)? How much tax revenue evaporates THEN? – TLK] (02/21/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/california-politics/article/billionaire-tax-tv-ad-olympics-21618922.php
- GA: McKinney Seeks Return to Congress
Source: Independent Political Report
“Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat who later became the Green Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, has declared her candidacy for Georgia’s 14th congressional district, seeking a return to Congress this November as a Green candidate. McKinney announced her bid this week, saying her campaign would prioritize healthcare and education, economic justice, and constitutional rights. … McKinney represented Georgia’s 11th congressional district as a Democrat from 1992 through 1996, and then its 4th district through 2002 after the Supreme Court ruled the former a racial gerrymander. While in office, she gained national attention for her frequent criticism of U.S. foreign policy and the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq following the September 11 attacks as well as her views on Israel and Palestine, factors that contributed to her defeat in the 2002 Democratic primary. She returned to Congress in 2004 for another term before losing in a Democratic primary runoff.” (02/20/26)
- PA: High school senior accused of running ‘large-scale’ catfishing, sextortion scheme targeting 21 minors
Source: New York Post
“A Pennsylvania high school senior is facing hundreds of felony charges after authorities reportedly accused him of operating a ‘large-scale criminal network’ involving sextortion and catfishing. Zachariah Abraham Meyers, 18, of McMurray — about 15 miles southwest of Pittsburgh — was arrested Friday and charged with more than 300 felonies, including trafficking in minors, sexual extortion, unlawful contact with a minor, distribution of child sexual abuse material, among other offenses, according to a court docket obtained by Fox News Digital. Police allege Meyers, a senior at Peters Township High School, used social media platforms, including TikTok and Snapchat, to lure the victims into communicating with him, according to local outlets WTAE and WPXI.” (02/22/26)
- All aboard America’s strategic blunder train. Next stop: Iran
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by James A Russell“With not just one — but two — carrier battle groups now steaming in circles somewhere off the coast of Oman out of the range of Iranian missiles, we are all left with the head-scratching question: what is it, exactly, that the United States hopes to accomplish with another round of air strikes on Iran? Trump hasn’t told us. The latest crisis du jour with Iran illustrates the strategic swamp willingly stepped into not just by Donald Trump but his predecessors as well. The swamp is built on a singular and hopelessly misguided assumption: that the use of force either by stand-off, limited strikes from 12,000 feet or even invasions will somehow solve complex political problems on the ground below.” (02/22/26)
- Liberation Day for Real? Not Really
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“‘[The International Emergency Economic Powers Act] does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.’ That’s the single really important sentence from the US Supreme Court’s February 20 ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump. Trump’s ongoing tariff tantrums, starting with his ‘Liberation Day’ schedule of ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, were illegal under the law in question, and under the US Constitution, which gives Congress, and only Congress, the power to levy taxes. … but don’t hold your breath waiting for relief, let alone recompense.” (02/21/26)
- CHARLIE Against Dialectics
Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra“It appears that the legislature in New Hampshire — a state declared in December 2025 as the ‘freest place in North America’ — has passed a bill that bans ‘leftist indoctrination’ and ‘LGBTQ+ teaching in public schools.’ But wait, there’s more! House Bill 1792, known as the CHARLIE Act (in a nod to assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk) is designed to ‘ban certain types of instruction and punish teachers who carried it out.’ CHARLIE is an acronym for ‘Countering Hate And Revolutionary Leftist Indoctrination in Education Act.’ … the bill prohibits the teaching of any ‘critical theories or related practices that promote division, dialectical world-views, critical consciousness or anti-constitutional indoctrination’ (emphasis added). … Dialectical thinking is a crucial component of critical thinking. … Alas, the right-wing zealots know that critical, dialectical thinking is also a component of radical thinking. And it is the radical that they most fear.” (02/21/26)
- On Taiwan and Japan, Chinese Belligerence Backfires
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter“When conservative Sanae Takaichi became the new leader of Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the country’s prime minister in October 2025, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) clearly was unhappy about that development. Chinese officials became even more annoyed when Takaichi voiced strong support for preserving the de facto independence of Taiwan …. President Xi Jinping’s government responded with vitriol and threats. … However, if Chinese leaders thought that Japanese voters would repudiate their new prime minister and her uncompromising stance toward Beijing, they miscalculated badly. Takaichi gambled by calling a snap election for early February, and the results were a spectacular political success for her and her party.” (02/22/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-taiwan-and-japan-chinese-belligerence-backfires/
- The Sordid Reality of the Global Power Elite
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by John W Whitehead“A decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals allowing thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents to be unsealed referenced allegations involving ‘numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders.’ That alone should have been enough to trigger full transparency. Instead, nearly 30 years after the first complaints against Epstein were filed, the full truth remains obscured. Why are documents still partially sealed? Why do redactions remain? Why are investigations declared ‘closed’ while unanswered questions linger? Epstein may have conveniently died in a jail cell six weeks after his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, but the machinery that empowered and protected him is still very much intact and it continues to work overtime to shield the global power elite, silence victims, and erase accountability. And that is the real scandal.” (02/20/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-sordid-reality-of-the-global-power-elite/
- SCOTUS has ruled on tariffs, but who will ultimately pay?
Source: The Hill
by Jonathan Turley“Friday’s blockbuster ruling on tariffs was hardly welcomed by the Trump administration, but it was also widely expected. The Supreme Court clearly established in its 6-3 decision that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not afford presidents authority to issue sweeping, unilateral tariffs like those imposed by President Trump over the last year. The justices fractured on other issues. And they left one issue conspicuously unaddressed: What happens to the hundreds of billions of dollars collected from these tariffs so far?” (02/21/26)
- Tariffs as Taxes
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“A tariff, for reasons described in earlier posts, generally makes the country that imposes it poorer. So do other taxes. Does it cost us more to raise a million dollars of revenue from a tariff than from an income tax, a sales tax, or some other alternative? What does that mean, what does a tax cost beyond the money handed over?” (02/21/26)
- The quaintness of UFO conspiracy theories
Source: spiked
by Simon Evans“There is something unavoidably quaint about the UFO conspiracy theory. The discovery of supposed alien space-craft debris near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, is closer to the time of Jack the Ripper than it is to the present moment. The idea that materials discovered there belong to some advanced interstellar craft that the United States Army Airforces (USAAF) have been reverse-engineering ever since should by all rights have decayed and perished as much as the rubber components implausibly found among them. … Why has it lasted? It may be because, as conspiracy theories go, this one is unusually optimistic. When the truth comes out, it will make things better, more exciting. This is very different from the usual tin-foil-hat fare …” (02/20/26)
- If you can’t make America great again, can you stop making it worse?
Source: Orange County Register
by Matt Fleming“Hey guys, can we admit now that President Donald Trump’s trade agenda is failing, or do we need a little more time? Trump’s toxic mix of tariffs and new trade agreements alienated allies, drove up costs on American consumers and failed to accomplish its stated goals of turning around the U.S. trade deficit and reviving domestic manufacturing. Oh, and most of his tariffs are also illegal. Now would be a perfect time for the Administration to reassess its goals and tactics, especially since the majority of Trump’s tariffs were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Hopefully Trump seizes the moment.” (02/20/26)
- Tell Iranian And Cuban Diaspora Warmongers To STFU
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Whenever you say anything online opposing the way the US is preparing for war with Iran or strangling Cuba to death with siege warfare, you’ll always get people whose family comes from the nation in question telling you to be silent and support the US war machine. Their family emigrated at some point because they didn’t like the government, so now they spend their time on social media telling everyone to support US operations to topple that government. The correct response to such people is ‘Shut the fuck up.'” (02/22/26)
- The Supreme Court Delivers Trump a Humiliating Gift
Source: The Atlantic
by David Frum“In the 1630s, King Charles I tried to tax English people without the consent of their legislature. He lost his head. In the 2020s, Donald Trump tried to tax Americans without the consent of Congress. He just lost his case. A tariff is a tax. The Trump tariffs imposed in and after April 2025 were projected to raise as much as $2.3 trillion over 10 years. The Constitution assigns authority over taxes, including tariffs, to Congress. It does so for reasons that date back to English constitutional history: An executive who can tax without permission from elected representatives is on his way to becoming a tyrant.” (02/20/26)
- Terror and Transformation
Source: Quillette
by Imran Said“The Japanese rampage across Southeast Asia from 1941–42 was a remarkable military feat by any metric, comparable to the early German blitzkrieg campaigns across Western Europe. In four months from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December, the Japanese had occupied Malaya, Singapore, Borneo, and the Dutch East Indies. The Western colonial powers had been decisively defeated, the humiliation of surrender made all the worse by the ignoble way many of the colonists had fled the advancing Japanese, leaving their Asian subjects to face the invaders’ wrath.” (02/21/26)
- Should There Even Be A Libertarian Party?
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer“In last week’s column, I argued that while neither major party consistently fights to shrink government and protect civil liberties, the Republican Party is closer than the Democratic Party to practicing such ideals. Meanwhile the actual Libertarian Party, despite existing for over a half-century, has failed to break into the mainstream, rarely making a dent in federal and state elections. These two realities raise a question: should libertarians stop propping up an uninfluential third party and try instead to overtake the GOP?” (02/20/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/20/should-there-even-be-a-libertarian-party/
- Eileen Gu Indicts Birthright Citizenship And Our Entire Immigration Orthodoxy
Source: The Federalist
by Elle Purnell“If Eileen Gu’s mother came to America for a better life, she got it. Yan Gu, the daughter of two Chinese government officials, emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s, just a few decades after the passage of the Hart-Celler Act, which overhauled immigration policies and prompted a massive increase in arrivals from Asia and Latin America. Educated at Auburn University, Rockefeller University, and eventually Stanford Graduate School of Business, she dabbled as a ski instructor and, apparently, in venture capital. In 2003, she gave birth to a daughter in San Francisco, raising her in an affluent Bay Area neighborhood. What’s known of Eileen Gu’s childhood reads like a caricature of coastal elitism …. Her story would be elevated as a saccharine picture of the neoliberal American dream, if Gu hadn’t decided to ski for China.” (02/20/26)
- The Supreme Court Sides With the Constitution
Source: Persuasion
by Charles Lane“As a constitutional matter, the issue before the Supreme Court in the case of President Trump’s tariffs was a relatively easy one. If the Constitution was designed to prevent anything, it was economic rule by one-man decree. Declaring a national emergency due to foreign disputes and making the American people pay stiff import taxes as a consequence, without clear legislative authority — as Trump did last year — was never part of the Founders’ plan. But actually acting on this truth was not so simple, especially for a conservative court majority that faced overt pressure from a president who had appointed three of them.” (02/21/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-supreme-court-sides-with-the
- In all the uproar over Epstein, remember the victims
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Amy Wallace“Since the Jan. 30 release of 3.5 million pages of Department of Justice investigation files, many concerned citizens around the globe have been trying, in earnest, to wade through the muck. … boldface names have grabbed the spotlight — Epstein helped director Woody Allen’s daughter get into college, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spent time with his family (and nanny) on Epstein’s island, supermodel Naomi Campbell asked to fly on Epstein’s plane. But, despite the valiant efforts of so many outspoken survivors, the heart of this vile conspiracy has been oddly pushed into the background: the brutal reality of what it felt like to be a girl caught in Epstein’s web.” (02/20/26)
- The US is on the brink of a major new war that Trump has not even bothered explaining
Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald“The U.S. under both parties has been insisting for two decades that it must abandon its heavy military involvement in the Middle East and instead “pivot to Asia” in light of a rapidly rising China. Yet in the midst of those vows, Trump has now assembled the largest military presence in the Middle East since 2003, when the U.S. was preparing to invade Iraq with overwhelming military force. One of the most striking and alarming aspects of all of this is that Trump — outside of a few off-the-cuff banalities — has barely attempted to offer a case to the American public as to why such a major new war is necessary.” (02/20/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-us-is-on-the-brink-of-a-major
- The Decapitation That Failed: Venezuela After the Abduction of President Maduro
Source: Common Dreams
by Roger D Harris & John Perry“The kidnapping of a sitting head of state marks a grave escalation in US-Venezuela relations. By seizing Venezuela’s constitutional president, Washington signaled both its disregard for international law and its confidence that it would face little immediate consequence. The response within the US political establishment to the attack on Venezuela has been striking. Without the slightest cognitive dissonance over President Nicolás Maduro’s violent abduction, Democrats call for ‘restoring democracy’ — but not for returning Venezuela’s lawful [sic] president. So why didn’t the imperialists simply assassinate him? From their perspective, it would have been cleaner and more cost-efficient. It would have been the DOGE thing to do …” (02/22/26)
- No, First-Time Homebuyers Aren’t All 40 Now
Source: The Daily Economy
by Craig J Richardson“A viral housing statistic has captured headlines and fueled frustration. But the emotionally satisfying data rests on shaky methodology, identifying the wrong problem.” (02/20/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/no-first-time-homebuyers-arent-all-40-now/
- German chancellor echoes the frequent — and illiberal — call to end online anonymity
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin“We’ve said it before. We’ll say it again. Ending online anonymity is not some magical cure to “fix” whatever problems you believe plague the internet and its culture. And for whatever ills may exist on social media, this kind of cure would be worse than the disease. But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at an event this week that online anonymity is a problem — and he wants it to end. ‘I want to see real names on the internet. I want to know who is speaking,’ Merz said on Wednesday in Trier, Germany. ‘In politics, we engage in debates in our society using our real names and without visors. I expect the same from everyone else who critically examines our country and our society.’ … It’s one thing to praise the value and benefits of speaking out under your true identity, but German citizens have reason to be troubled by Merz’s comments.” (02/20/26)
- America’s most controversial publisher
Source: Expression
by Amy Sohn“The life and times of Lyle Stuart, publisher of The Anarchist Cookbook and The Turner Diaries.” (02/20/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/americas-most-controversial-publisher
- A Footnote on Jesse Jackson
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“One expects that history will extend to Jesse Jackson the same indulgence it has extended to his mentor, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and to such figures as Mohandas K. Gandhi and (to a lesser extent) Thomas Jefferson — he was on the right side of the immensely important issue with which he was most intimately associated, and, while that is not everything, it is enough. And that is an excellent prospect for the reputation of Jesse Jackson, who, like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi and (to a lesser extent) Thomas Jefferson, had a lot of bad political ideas and some positively daft economic ideas, some of which got worse over the years.” (02/20/26)
- Gavin Newsom, You’re No Bill Clinton
Source: Persuasion
by Ruy Teixeira“Gavin Newsom: friend of the Resistance, friend of moderates, friend of progressives, friend of populists, friend of labor, friend of abundance-istas, special chum of Big Tech, and hard man for the Democratic Party. He’s got it all, twinned with a preternatural ability to deliver a perfectly calibrated message to each of these audiences when called upon to do so. The Gavin Newsom message delivery system brings to mind another famed Democratic message delivery system, Bill Clinton, who was similarly adept at reaching a wide range of audiences and similarly willing to bend his principles to do so. … So is Newsom the next Bill Clinton? I don’t think so. Despite the similarities there is one huge and hugely important difference: Clinton’s message delivery magic was in the service ultimately of reaching a general election audience, not just a Democratic audience.” (02/20/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-false-hope-of-gavin-newsom
- The GDP Illusion: Surging Statistics Hide Pain for Average Americans
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Kevin Duffy“No, the economy is not booming. Far from it. Last month, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index hit its lowest level since 2014. The monthly ISM manufacturing index registered ten consecutive months of contraction through December. On February 5, the Challenger Report on the US labor market showed announced job cuts in January more than doubled year-over-year, ‘hitting their highest level since the 2009 Great Recession,’ according to Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO of Pimco. … How do we square vigorous GDP statistics with an economy clearly deteriorating?” (02/20/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/gdp-illusion-surging-statistics-hide-pain-average-americans
- Democrats Are Obsessed With White Men
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“You can’t turn around these days without seeing some leftist somewhere whining about white men. As a white man, it seems like every Democrat is an obsessed stalker – it’s enough to make us want to take out a restraining order. I speak for all white men in this piece because, after watching a week’s worth of fawning coverage of the death of Jesse Jackson that glossed over or ignored his racism, affair (oh, the stories I’ve heard) and grifting, I remembered who he simply appointed himself a ‘leader’ and the corporate media crowned him the spokesman for black people, so I’ll take the job for whitey for today. What is the obsession the left has with us? It’s flattering, I suppose. We’ve done pretty well, though you never know it from the way Democrats talk about us.” (02/22/26)
- Kentucky’s independent workers deserve access to portable benefits
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Angela C Erickson & Vance Ginn“Work comes in many shapes and sizes. In today’s economy, traditional 9-to-5 employment is but one option, and more people are choosing alternatives that better fit their values and lives. These workers deserve better access to benefits like health insurance and retirement savings. Over 330,000 Kentuckians earn income as freelancers, contractors or self-employed workers. They include rideshare and delivery drivers, truckers, freelance creatives, child care providers and consultants. Together, they generate more than $18 billion in annual revenue. This workforce is growing, diverse, and vital to the commonwealth’s economy — yet state and federal policies haven’t kept pace with that reality.” (02/20/26)
https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/independent-workers-portable-benefits/
- Immigration and Culture
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“All signs point to cultural insecurity (at best) as to why so many people are uncomfortable with the prospect of free, or ever freer, immigration. A few moments’ reflection is enough to show why that’s silly, especially in the United States. Trying to control a culture is like (my apologies; I can’t improve on this) trying to nail Jello to the wall. Ain’t gonna happen. … the desire to bar foreign-born people on grounds of cultural incompatibility is ridiculous. Since wonderful America, the envy of the world, has always been a changing mix of countless cultural elements, we’d be harming ourselves by any attempt to keep things ‘traditional.'” (02/20/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-immigration-and-culture
- How Mamdani’s tax-hike mania could make his budget gap grow BIGGER
Source: New York Post
by John Ketcham“Mayor Zohran Mamdani has painted himself as the unfortunate victim of a historic budget crisis, but he really should be counting his lucky stars. New York City has a big spending problem, but not a revenue problem. Yet that could change soon — warning signs are already flashing. Mamdani isn’t confronting an external economic shock like a recession, 9/11, the financial crisis or COVID-19. Wall Street is doing fine; the taxes on its stellar bonuses made $5 billion of the city’s budget gap disappear overnight. As much as the mayor would hate to admit it, he needs Wall Street more than it needs him. According to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the securities industry contributes 42.3% of the city’s personal-income tax and 8.4% of its total tax revenue.” (02/22/26)
- After four years, Russian inflation may be key to ending the war
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Mark Episkopos“Western travelers to Moscow often remark, with complete justification, on the sense of normalcy that the government has been able to sustain four years into the most dangerous, destructive war in Europe since 1945. But there is another, overriding sense that became especially palpable to me on my second visit since the war began in 2022. Belying this outward commitment to business as usual is a profound social, economic, and political transformation with stark implications for both Russia and the West.” (02/20/26)
- Supreme Court Decides Our Tariff Case — and We Won!
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin“Today, the Supreme Court decided our case challenging Donald Trump’s massive IEEPA tariffs. In a 6-3 decision, Court rightly ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the President the power to ‘impose tariffs on imports from any country, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time.’ It’s a major victory for the constitutional separation of powers, for the rule of law, for free trade, and for the millions of American consumers and businesses enduring higher taxes and higher prices as a result of these tariffs. Our case was filed by Liberty Justice Center and myself on behalf of five small US businesses.” (02/20/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/02/20/supreme-court-decides-our-tariff-case-and-we-won/
- Rents, AI, and Commodity Prices: What Drove State-Level Growth in 2024?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Jason Sorens“Measuring state-level prices with adequate precision requires a lot of data collection, and there’s always a long lag between the time period measured and the release of the data. The Bureau of Economic Analysis has now released its data on state-level prices and inflation for 2024, a year when US growth patterns diverged from their pandemic-era patterns. California, believe it or not, was the fastest-growing state economy in 2024, once you adjust for inflation.” (02/20/26)
- What The Dems Should Say On Trans Rights
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan“They can own the compassionate, sane center on this. Just drop the crazy.” (02/20/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/what-the-dems-should-say-on-trans-ecd
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 02/21/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Libertarian Party Time Capsule Jan/Feb 1976 — Tax Revolt.” (02/21/26)
- The Climate Realism Show, episode 191
Source: Heartland Institute
“Unlearning Climate Alarmism.” (02/21/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/unlearning-climate-alarmism-the-climate-realism-show-191/
- Serious Trouble, 02/21/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“IEEPA, You EEPA, We EEPA.” (02/21/26)
- Pod Save America, 02/22/26
Source: Crooked Media
“Trump Loses At Supreme Court, Handles It Well.” (02/22/26)
- Something Completely Different, With Brian Wilson, 02/21/26
Source: Something Completely Different, With Brian Wilson
“Back to the Barn!” (02/21/26)
- Neon Liberalism, episode 64
Source: Liberal Currents
“Samantha Hancox-Li and guest Ryan C. Smith, author and economic historian, discuss the possibility of publicly-owned electric utilities in America.” (02/21/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-case-for-public-electricity-neon-liberalism-64-with-ryan-smith/
- Rising, 02/20/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the Pentagon will cut ties with Harvard University.” (02/20/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5735557-rising-february-20-2026/
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 02/21/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Watch Jonah Goldberg Destroy Iran | Ruminant.” (02/21/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/watch-jonah-goldberg-destroy-iran-ruminant/
- The Focus Group, 02/21/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Is This Republican Senator Too Normal for Republicans? (w/ Eric Benson).” (02/21/26)
- The Tom Woods Show, 02/20/26
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Ron Paul Was Right About Everything.” (02/20/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2737-ron-paul-was-right-about-everything/
- The Good Fight Club, 02/21/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Yascha Mounk, Bethany Allen, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Chang Che examine how Asia is preparing for a more dangerous world.” (02/20/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 02/20/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs.” (02/20/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/supreme-court-strikes-down-trump-tariffs/
- Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 02/20/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Chris Edwards, CATO Institute ‘Ending Federal Tobacco Subsidies.'” (02/20/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-02-21_zfw002202026.mp3
- NPR Politics Podcast, 02/20/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Supreme Court rules most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal.” (02/20/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/20/nx-s1-5719828/supreme-court-rules-most-of-trumps-tariffs-are-illegal